Climate Change is here

For many years now, Bhutanese have been noting the drying water sources impacting both agriculture and drinking water in both rural and urban areas across Bhutan.

This is a clear and visible impact of climate change as a heating planet and erratic rain and snowfall means traditional water sources can no longer be relied on.

Climate change is also visible with more agricultural pests than ever before, impacting everything from paddy to apples.

Even the orange trees of the warm south are finding it too hot and growing at higher altitudes. Once unthinkable, even paddy is growing in higher altitude areas.

Some have even noted mosquitos and other bugs climbing higher.

In recent years, we are now witnessing the more visibly extreme forms of climate change. The most recent examples being the Dechencholing floods, Paro storm and the Gangtey floods.

Just last year, around this time, the Ungar flood in Lhuentse turned a small innocuous stream into a raging killer wiping out 23 lives.

In 2021, ten lives were lost to a landslide in Laya.

It has been known for a while now that climate change will mean a hotter and wetter Bhutan with rainfall not necessarily coming when we need it and often coming in sudden downpours.

The Climate Change Projection report by the NCHM has now added more details predicting more floods, drought and higher chance of GLOF which will impact everything from agriculture to hydropower.

Our response must be to design plans to adapt to these changes. Settlements should not be allowed near potentially dangerous areas, water and infrastructure projects need to be more durable, glacial lakes need to be monitored and some may need to be lowered and planning in general should take into account such extreme weather becoming more common.

Bhutan is very vulnerable to climate change even though we are a carbon neutral country. The international community has not met its commitments to support less developed countries with adaptation. There is no point waiting and we have to act on our own.

“Men argue. Nature acts.”
Voltaire